As Shabery Cheek has admitted abuses of ISA detentions, will he raise in
Cabinet on Wednesday the immediate and unconditional release of Hindraf
Five and a Commission of Inquiry into the 1987 Operation Lalang of mass
ISA detentions and closure of four newspapers to purge the country of
the “yes-men culture”

The present UMNO Cabinet and leadership have admitted that in the
past there had been gross abuses of the Internal Security Act (ISA)
against dissent.

In a new series of attacks against former UMNO President and Prime
Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad by UMNO Ministers the new Information
Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek said that during Mahathir’s
leadership “many were detained under the ISA supposedly because they
were a threat to national security when in actual fact they were a
threat to his leadership…” in response to Mahathir’s charges that UMNO
leaders have become “yes-men”.

Although a few low-level UMNO, MCA and Gerakan political leaders were
among the 106 persons detained in the initial crackdown of Operation
Lalang in October 1987 – which included the closure of four newspapers -
none of them were among the 40 who were formally served with two-year
detention orders after the 60-day interrogative custody and dispatched
to Kamunting Detention Centre – which included seven serving DAP MPs at
the time, viz: Karpal Singh, Dr. Tan Seng Giaw, Lim Guan Eng, Lau Dak
Kee, the late P. Patto, the late V. David and myself.

Is Shabery Cheek prepared to represent the present Barisan Nasional
Cabinet and leadership to admit that the entire 1987 Ops Lalang ISA
crackdown, both against the 106 persons initially detained as well as
the 40 persons who were formally detained after the 60-day custody, had
been a gross abuse of power by Mahathir, his Cabinet and government;
extend a formal government apology to the victims of Operation Lalang –
not only the ISA detainees and their families and the closure of the
four newspapers but also to the country for promoting a “yes-men
culture” for some three decades – and establish a commission of inquiry
into the 1987 Operation Lalang to ensure that such gross abuses of power
could not recur in Malaysia in future.

However, the most immediate and pressing question is why the new
Abdullah Cabinet is not prepared to break from the bad habits of the
past and stop using draconian laws like the ISA to clamp down on dissent
and promote a “yes-men culture” by unconditionally releasing
newly-elected Selangor DAP State Assemblyman for Kota Alam Shah A.
Manoharan and four other Hindraf leaders, P. Uthayakumar, V. Ganabatirau,
R. Kenghadharan and T. Vasantha Kumar from ISA detention.

The ISA detention of the Hindraf Five is the latest blatant example of
the abuse of the ISA to detain persons not because they are a threat to
national security but a threat to MIC and Barisan Nasional leadership as
they refused to be “yes men” – as happened repeatedly in the past and
now admitted by the Information Minister.

Is Shabery Cheek prepared to get the support of other Ministers to raise
in the Cabinet on Wednesday for the immediate and unconditional release
of the Hindraf Five under the ISA as well as for a Commission of Inquiry
into the 1987 Operation Lalang on the mass ISA detentions and the
closure of four newspapers to purge the country of the “yes-men
culture”?